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HEADING:
The Biggest Online Real Estate Training Ever! (Don’t Miss It)
BODY:
Hi, its Cherie from Renovating For Profit here. I’ve got some great
news to share with you. I’m involved in a brand new ONLINE event
where myself and five more of Australia’s most knowledgeable real
estate professionals are coming together for a new online
conference.
Its called the Masters of Real Estate Investment
(http://www.mastersofrealestateinvestment.com.au/rfp) and this event
is new and unlike anything I’ve seen, because it will deliver good
quality property educational content straight to your computer
from the internet, at absolutely no cost to yourself.  Topics to be
included cover developing a positive cash flow property portfolio,
renovating for profit, creative property deals – including how to buy
property with next to no money, property tax structures and smart
property development strategies.
Many of you who have seen me speak before, know I’m a big advocate
of self education. For even if you pick up only one new tip, its
that one tip that could potentially help you on your way to
financial independence.
To date, I know that 9 hours of online property content has already
been developed, all put together by professional investors and
speakers like myself. The content will be good and more
importantly, share information and strategies that you can use in
the current property market right now.
The conference series kicks off on September 16th with an overview
of the Australian property market with John Lindeman, head of
research at Residex, Australia’s oldest property research company.
John’s presentation is amazing and a must for serious property
investors!
I think you will really love this and truly hope you value the
information. To be part of the event, please CLICK HERE to register
now. Enjoy!
With the Kindest of Regards

You Haven’t Missed It!

Sign up today and watch previous sessions from your computer…

Portfolios is supporting this event with our partners Renovating For Profit. We have had a long and fruitful relationship with Renovating For Profit and believe this program will suit any one interested in investing in real estate. If you wish to ask us more questions please leave your details in the fields following Cherie’s letter below. You can also register and catch up with past seminars at any time.

Hi, its Cherie from Renovating For Profit here.

I’ve got some great news to share with you. I’m involved in a brand new ONLINE event where myself and five more of Australia’s most knowledgeable real estate professionals are coming together for a new online conference.

Its called the Masters of Real Estate Investment and this event is new and unlike anything I’ve seen, because it will deliver good quality property educational content straight to your computer from the internet, at absolutely no cost to yourself.

Topics to be included cover developing a positive cash flow property portfolio, renovating for profit, creative property deals – including how to buy property with next to no money, property tax structures and smart property development strategies.

Many of you who have seen me speak before, know I’m a big advocate of self education. Even if you pick up only one new tip, its that one tip that could potentially help you on your way to financial independence.

To date, I know that 9 hours of online property content has already been developed, all put together by professional investors and speakers like myself. The content will be good and more importantly, share information and strategies that you can use in the current property market right now.

The conference series kicks off on September 16th with an overview of the Australian property market with John Lindeman, head of research at Residex, Australia’s oldest property research company.

John’s presentation is amazing and a must for serious property investors!

I think you will really love this and truly hope you value the information. To be part of the event, please CLICK HERE to register now.

Enjoy!

With the Kindest of Regards

Cherie RFP signature

Sitting in America drinking terrible American coffee I look around and the feel in the air seems to suggest all is not well in America.
Rising unemployment, business confidence (although up is still down) crumbling infrastructure and services and of course lowering house prices.
Why hasnt or wont Australia follwo suit? Or will it?
==========================
In this article we are looking at the rise and fall of sub prime market in the US in particular. Bear in mind it is just an overview with more detail than the internet has room to fill.
Lenders have been able to offer loans to people who could not prove their credit worthiness since the nineties in the US. These loans, called sub prime loans, are also more expensive to manage by both the lender and the borrower and typically draw in people who can not manage their finances well.
They say when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. The housing crisis in the US has seen house prices drop sometimes by up to 50% or more. And even now the housing market appears to be on a long road to recovery with a continuing over supply and easy conditions to walk away from uncontrollable debts.
I even got to go into an American house that reached a valuation of over USD $2m, only to have the owner explain the house was in possession by the bank and now worth less than $1.2m.
The sub prime market (similar to the Australian low doc market) in America has, according to some, been a major contributor to the global financial crisis and the glut in housing leading to a severe drop in house prices and people simply walking away from their homes unable to pay the mortgage.
Names like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become pinacles of over lend under capitalise leading to the demise of many American banks. The rippled effect globally is the increased cost of funds.
Talking with Americans they now realise that perhaps the lax lending criteria, coupled with the ease of being able to default and leave a debt, combined to create one of the largest financial collapses of our time. Interestingly in late 2007 only 7% of loans were sub prime but they accounted for 43% of the defaults on mortgages.
The sub prime crisis had far-reaching consequences around the globe. Tranches of sub-prime debts were repackaged by banks and trading houses into attractive-looking investment vehicles and securities that were snapped up by banks, traders and hedge funds on the US, European and Asian markets. Thus when the crisis hit the subprime mortgage industry, those who bought into the market suddenly found their investments near-valueless. (source wikkipedia)
The sub prime issue was a result of a number of factors including:
* Softening house prices
* High cost of the loans
* People unable to cope with rising interest rates
* Lack of effective government oversight
* Over inflated home appraisals
to name a few.
As banks began to face widespread defualts – many of the down line borrowers, including some Australian lenders, faced rising costs – fuelling a local raise in interest rates outside of the Australian Reserve.
Could the same happen in Australia? We dont think so – Australia picked up on the low doc lending phenomenon much later in the piece – but we will examine the low doc market in the next article.
We look at the Australian low doc lending market and why we feel Australia is more immune to the lending crsis that has and continues to affect the global housing market.
(source Wikkipedia)

Sitting in America drinking terrible American coffee I look around and the feel in the air seems to suggest all is not well in America.

Rising unemployment, business confidence (although up, is still down) crumbling infrastructure and services and of course lower house prices.

Why hasn’t or wont Australia follow suit? Or will it?

Headline> Are You Paying Too Much Tax?
Welcome to the end of the 09/10 Financial Year.
Paying tax is something we all need to do but none of us like to do.
Next tax time you could be adopting legitimate tax minimisation strategies reducing your tax burden whilst building a strong investment property portfolio.
Find out how…
===========================
Before reading this article you should always seek proper, independent financial advice before making any investment decision.
With tax time looming we will all be doing our tax returns and probably realising one thing – we are paying too much tax.
Tax is not a bad thing – someone has to pay for our roads, schools and other infrastructure, but there are legitimate ways to reduce your tax by using the money for something more worthwhile like building an investment property portfolio.
We get questions all the time – how can you own a property for under $30 per week? Why so little?
Well one strategy is Negative Gearing.
<sub head> What Is Negative Gearing?
Negative gearing strategy in Australia is motivated by our tax regime, which allows deduction of ongoing losses against taxed income. This is further offset by taxing capital gains at a lower rate.
This might sound complicated but in reality it isnt.
<Sub Head> How It Works!
You purchase a property and incur costs on that property – these costs include third party expenses, loan interest and set up costs.
If the costs on the property are greater than the (rental) income generated you will technically be incurring a loss on that investment.
But the story continues…
<sub head> You Earn An Income? This Is How It works
In Australia the losses made on property are able to be weighted against your taxable income.
You will need to have a clear picture of your costs versus income to know your losses – costs include depreciation, setup costs, mortgage costs and interest, ongoing maintenance and property costs such as rates. Just like your personal income – you can claim anything that contributes to the generation of income in your property.
All Portfolios properties come to you with a clear understanding of the costs involved so you make an educated decision on the potential for negative gearing of the property before purchasing.
Your capacity to cover the loss is an important factor in determining the right deal.
<sub head> So If It Is  A Loss Why Do It?
There are a number of reasons why people consider negative gearing as an option for their property investment strategy from straight tax minimisaton through to the great investment returns to be made on the property.
Many of the Portfolios properties are expected to return in excess of 250% return on investment giving you some of the best returns in any market.
Property is a great investment, but like any investment there is risk and you should seek proper independent financial advice.
Talk to Portfolios and see how we can help you make those steps to a future in property investment.

Welcome to the end of the 09/10 Financial Year.

Paying tax is something we all need to do but none of us like to do.

Next tax time you could be adopting legitimate tax minimisation strategies reducing your tax burden whilst building a strong investment property portfolio.

Find out how…

Renovating For Profit
You’ve watched the lifestyle shows, dreamed of buying the do-upable dump and making a good return out of it.
All over the world people take on projects to renovate and make money from property. It is contagious, both challenging and rewarding.
But what happened to making the dream a reality?
=========================
Portfolios is proud to be associated with Cherie Barber and Stephen Tolle and the Renovating For Profit team. It is a unique community of people that buy houses, do them up and sell them – for a living. The amazing thing about this community is it is made up of ordinary Australians like you and me. There are some who wouldn’t dare put a lick of paint on a wall or pretend to be the carpet layer, tiler, sparky and plumber all in one.
In fact most of these people are simply great project managers, I will come back to that later.
Renovating property is a rewarding experience that, given the right tools, structure, strategy and financial platform, will give you a very fulfilling career or some extra income.
I personally complete 2 -3 projects per year, look after the Portfolios group businesses and along with meeting our wonderful clients that is my plan. Business will give you a lifestyle, your deals will give you your financial wealth.
(sub headline) So how can I help?
When looking into renovation project there are plenty of aspects to consider.
The main 3 are: Structure, Strategy and Finance, other fine print considerations for you could be:
1. What is your exit strategy?
Are you going to renovate and hold or renovate and sell?
Always be prepared when you have to hang onto the property that you have the capacity to hold via income or equity.
2. What is your costs and profit margin?
Understand the kind of gains you can make and manage your improvements accordingly. Knowing your numbers for buy, renovation and end sales price are critical to success.
4. What improvements/ works do you need to make?
Are you just making cosmetic changes or major structrual or even extending the property?
Firstly make sure you can make the changes you want to – check with council and look at similar properties.
Your due diligence is your chosen area will make sure you know what is desired and the end sale price for delivering that to the market.
As you make more an more deals this job will get easier because you will be able to estimate better yourself. But in the mean time surround yourself with professionals. Dont be afraid you will be helping their businesses too.
5. What is your contingency?
I see too many developers, renovators and property investors that come in with a conservative estimate on improvement works and do not consider an contingencies.
Lets face it there are many and varied factors to property projects, allow in your plan to cater for these.
6. Become A Project Manager
Project management 101 – manage your project closely – watch your progress, scope and budgets.
Timing is also critical so use a program to manage day to day activities who is where when – what needs to be completed to allow other works to take place on site. And like your contingency build buffers into your program – rain delays, holidays, slack contractors.
7.  With each deal it gets easier
When I started out – like all of us – I made mistakes but in each case I have learnt far more from them,now I have the privilege of helping people avoid the mistakes I made, saving them valuable time and money.
There are aspects of this business that you will always rely on others to solve for you but increasingly you will be able to take on aspects of the deal yourself based on your growing knowledge – you will become more astute and will see potential everywhere.
(sub headline) Financing The Deal
So the deal looks good and you have done your due diligence, what now.
Make the time to work with the Portfolios Team on your plan, whats possible, the project, structure, strategy and then we can work on finance options.
We can even show you strategies how to finance the deal using other people’s money and time.
First things first complete our Portfolio Review and we will work with you through the steps to becoming that Professional Property person.
Make It Happen – you’ll love it.
Paul Pritchett

You’ve watched the lifestyle shows, dreamed of buying the do-upable dump and making a good return out of it.

All over the world people take on projects to renovate and make money from property. It is contagious, both challenging and rewarding.

But what happened to making the dream a reality?

Understand Your Strategy, Then Check Your Loan Exit Costs
With the average loan for an investment property being refinanced every three years it is little wonder the banks have introduced fees to make you think twice about moving away from them.
Loan exit fees have become common place in the mortgage market. Today very few banks provide loans without them. But it hasn’t always been the case.
Lenders exit fees serve to discourage people from refinancing to other banks – or even with the same bank. They are designed to keep customers as long as the bank can.
The challenge for banks is that most home loans do not make as much profitability in the first few years as they do in the ensuing years. Banks need to recoup profit if the customer chooses to exit early.
Fees can range from $400, an average of major lenders around the $750-$1000 mark with non-bank lenders charging a percentage to exit of around up to 2.5%.
Whilst we dont necessarily agree with these exit fees it is something we have work with developing your strategy.
What you need to understand is your strategy affects the loan options and it is far more than just the interest rate.
At Portfolios we understand all consideration of your deal and the associated loan/s which is why we aim to offer up to three loan options into your strategy each with its own profile and considerations. Make sure you take the time to review and discuss.
For example if you are purchasing to renovate and sell  quickly  then we will offer up to 3 loans that typically would have  lower exit fees for great profitability in your deal.
However if your strategy is to buy and hold the property then the early exit fees are not so much of a consideration.
Portfolios will work with you to develop the right strategy that includes Structure, Strategy, the Property and Finance.
If you wish to look at your options and get started complete our FREE Portfolio Review and we will be in contact with you shortly.
Portfolios looks forward to working with you to …Make it Happen.

With the average loan for an investment property being refinanced every three years it is little wonder the banks have introduced fees to make you think twice about moving away from them.

Loan exit fees have become common place in the mortgage market. Today very few banks provide loans without them. But it hasn’t always been the case.